“You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews, as you please, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring.” Esther 8:8
Did you ever wonder why God does not just deliver? It’s not like He is not able!
Haman, the wicked enemy of the Jews, had issued a decree to annihilate the Jews on a given day. According to the law of the Medes and the Persians, this decree could not be reversed. As the day approached, hope of survival had grown dim. Without Divine intervention, the Jews were doomed. Or were they?
In much the same way, the Enemy has unleashed his evil schemes against us. While God clearly has the power, ability, and interest to deliver, He doesn’t, or at least not directly. Instead, He says, “I’ve got a better plan; you do it. Go ahead, make a decree, as you please, in my Name, and then seal it with that ring I put on your finger.” God’s intention was never to simply reign; His plan is for us to reign with Him. We are not just subjects of the Kingdom, we are his co-regents. God does not just want to show His power to us, He wants to show His power in and through us.
The story of Esther is a great object lesson in the way that God delivers. Haman represents Satan, or the enemies which are set against us as God’s people, those who oppose us to walk in our destinies, callings and potential. They seem to have the advantage. They have influence, and resources, and numbers. They have become aggressive, arrogant, emboldened. We can easily become defensive as circumstances pile up against us, which threaten us to bow to discouragement, weariness, or fear.
In many ways, this is also an accurate picture of the culture war we are fighting in many parts of the world today. We as God’s people are living in increasingly hostile environments. We face discrimination, injustices, oppression. Like the Jews of Esther’s time–disdained, underprivileged, rights-deprived citizens of the Persian Empire–we feel the squeeze. Things which we once took for granted we now have to contend for. We dream of the old days when churches were a center of social and spiritual life in communities, a time when those who were in the ministry were held in esteem, when the Bible was acknowledged as a standard and compass for how to live, for values, for light.
God, keep us from discouragement, or lips that complain about our circumstances. We cannot look with nostalgia on the things of the past. We must not fall prey to the lie that we are losing the battle. We must not grow passive; we must not compromise. We also must not sit around and wonder why God just doesn’t do something. For if we really understand His ways, we know that none of these things have escaped His notice. He has not lost some of His strategic advantage. Despite appearances, His Kingdom is definitely not under threat! On the contrary, God is the Great Architect, the Conductor, preparing us for greater testimonies, greater wonders, and greater deliverances. “The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace” (PS 37:11). Our role in this will not be as spectators. It will not even be simply as participants. Though Satan may bruise our heel, we are going to crush his head! These words of Jesus will not fall to the ground:
“Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do…that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:12-13
He is moving us into a place where we, like Esther and Mordecai, will step up into a places of authority, of displaying His power, of being instruments of great deliverances, and winners of hard-fought battles. His word will be fulfilled, in order that the Father may be glorified.
If we are expecting God to just stretch forth His hand and strike down our enemies, and scatter them like smoke before the wind, we do not understand the wonder of His plan which is unfolding before our very eyes. As it was in the days of Esther, so shall it be again in these Last Days. God wants to show the world how awesome He is, in us. He wants to show that He can defeat the many by the few. He wants to show how the weak will shame the strong. He wants us to trust in and then use the Spiritual tools and weapons He has given to us to do great exploits. We cannot look to governments or to the systems of this world any longer to do what the Church is destined to do.
Let us stand in the favor of Esther, and wear the signet ring of Mordecai. Let us decree those things the Lord shows us and see what God will do to lead us in triumphal procession in Christ Jesus. Like the mighty cross of Christ, the gallows Haman imagined would mark the end of his enemy became the place where he was hung. We live in the shadow, legacy, and power of this cross today. Satan sure thought that he had won, only to discover that God uses the foolish things to confound the wise. It was not the first time, nor was it the last, that Satan’s “victory” left him “disarmed”, and a “public spectacle” made of him (Col 2:15).
So, beloved, let us never sit around and wonder why God has not yet delivered us. Romans 8:19 says the creation is earnestly expecting and eagerly awaiting the revealing of the sons of God. Come on, Church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15), this is your finest hour.