Deliverance

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Esther 4:14 (NIV)

I love the confidence Mordecai had in God (by implication) in the face of an impossible situation. It is because God keeps His promises that we can have confidence in Him. God had promised to bless the world through Abraham's Offspring, and He assuredly would do so.

Satan tried to thwart God's plan to bless the world through Abraham's Offspring by the genocide of the Jewish people. Thankfully, satan is only a creature, where as God is the Everlastingly Almighty Sovereign of the universe. Nothing can hinder God from saving, whether by Jonathan and his armour bearer, Queen Esther, or ultimately, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just because Jesus has been and gone in terms of His first advent, doesn't mean to say it's now okay to wipe out the Jewish people. Anti Semitism is as wrong today as it's ever been. God hasn't abandoned the Jews, just because the people of God are spiritually those who trust in the Jewish Messiah and Saviour of the world, Christ Jesus.

Thankfully, Esther took the encouragement from Mordecai and went to King Xerxes, even though she wasn't in his good books, and genocidal Haman the Agagite was. And graciously God moved the heart of Xerxes to be favourably disposed towards her and her beleaguered people. So it was possible for Christ to be born to save all who trust in Him.

'Lord God Almighty, we're so grateful that nothing can thwart Your good purposes for those who trust in You. Please help us to do so even in the face of opposition. For Your glory we pray, amen'.