Esther 2:1-7
2 After these things, when the wrath of king Ahasuerus was appeased, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what was decreed against her.
2 Then said the king’s servants that ministered unto him, Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king:
3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, that they may gather together all the fair young virgins unto Shushan the palace, to the house of the women, unto the custody of Hege the king’s chamberlain, keeper of the women; and let their things for purification be given them:
4 And let the maiden which pleaseth the king be queen instead of Vashti. And the thing pleased the king; and he did so.
5 Now in Shushan the palace there was a certain Jew, whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite;
6 Who had been carried away from Jerusalem with the captivity which had been carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away.
7 And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle’s daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter.
Woven through the tapestry of this wonderful story we find at least three timeless lessons thus far. The first has to do with God’s plan. The second has to do with God’s purposes. And the third has to do with God’s people.
First, God’s plans are not hindered when the events of this world are carnal or secular. God is at work. He’s moving. He’s touching lives. He’s shaping kingdoms. He’s never surprised by what humanity may do. Just because actions or motives happen to be secular or carnal or unfair, it doesn’t mean He’s not present. Those involved may not be glorifying Him, but never doubt it, He’s present. He’s at work.
Second, God’s purposes are not frustrated by moral or marital failures. How do I know that? Because He is a God who applies grace to the long view of life. Wrong grieves Him, and serious consequences follow, but no amount of wrong frustrates His sovereign purposes! He is a God of great grace.
Third, God’s people are not excluded from high places because of handicap or hardship. Esther was a Jew exiled in a foreign land. She was an orphan. She was light-years removed from Persian nobility. Yet none of that kept God from exalting her to the position in which He wanted her.
God’s hand is not so short that it cannot save, nor is His ear so heavy that He cannot hear. Whether you see Him or not, He is at work in your life this very moment. God specializes in turning the mundane into the meaningful. God not only moves in unusual ways, He also moves on uneventful days. He is just as involved in the mundane as He is in the miraculous.
He is a sovereign God at work amid the vast scenes of state and empires in our world. And we, even in the midst of our usual days, must remain pure and committed to the things of God and His work in our lives, even as we remain sensitive to His hand moving in carnal, secular, even drunken places. Only then can we bring to our broken world the hope it so desperately needs.
God can turn the mundane into the meaningful. He moves even on uneventful days.
— Charles R. Swindoll
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