FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

1. For Such A Time As This

a) This phrase 'For such a time as this' is found in Esther 4:14, "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?”

b) Esther, a cousin of Mordecai, was a member of the Jewish community in the Exilic Period who claimed as an ancestor Kish, a Benjamite who had been taken from Jerusalem into captivity. She was the orphaned daughter of Mordecai's uncle, another Benjamite named Abihail.

c) The ordeal started when Mordecai refused to bow to Haman, the king's chief minister. This infuriated Haman, and after he discovered Mordecai was a Jew, he conceived a plot to exterminate the Jews.

d) When Mordecai heard of this, he asked Esther to plead with the king on their behalf to retract an order for the general annihilation of Jews throughout the empire. The massacre had been plotted by Haman, and the date decided by casting lots (Purim).

e) Mordecai urged Esther “… who knows, if it is for a time like this that you have become queen?” (4:13–14)

f) Stating her intent to approach the king, Esther said to Mordecai, "Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” (Esther 4:16).

g) Doesn't this declaration sound like the statement of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego before they were thrown into the furnace? (Daniel 3:17–18.)

h) We know the sad end for Haman. Haman was hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai, and, on the day planned for their annihilation, the Jews destroyed their enemies.

i) According to the Book of Esther, the feast of Purim was established to celebrate that day, but this explanation is surely legendary.

j) Even though we were not born in such a time as Esther or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, what is God speaking to you for such a time in these present days?