God’s Timing is Perfect

Esther 5:1-10:3

“Then the king said to Haman, ‘Hurry, take the robes and the horse as you have said, and do so to Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.'” Esther 6:10

The story of Esther is one that I absolutely adore. For lots of reasons, but one of the main ones is because it was the very first Bible Study I ever led. (Beth Moore’s Esther) Making the decision to follow that tug at my heartstrings and step up to the leadership position was HARD. I’d never led a Bible Study before. I didn’t know what I was talking about. What in the world qualified me to lead the study? Nothing. This was precisely why God wanted me to lead it. Because He knew that I wouldn’t be leaning on my own understanding I would be leaning on His. And I did.

Now here I stand, about five years later and I’ve taken another step (LEAP) of faith by accepting yet another leadership position that I feel terribly under qualified for; the Women’s Ministries Director position at my church.

I am quite likely the youngest adult woman at our church, yet I’ve been chosen to lead them. This intimidates me greatly! But if God has led me faithfully thus far then who am I to think that He won’t continue to do so? He helped me lead that first Esther Bible study and He will help me lead this Women’s ministry too. He is faithful, of that I have no doubt.

In today’s reading we find the evil Haman plotting to kill Mordecai, he’s all ready to strike when WHAM! He’s the one that takes the hit. It’s awesome how it all works out. The timing in this story is absolutely impeccable. I mean here we have Haman walking into the king’s court prepared to ask for Mordecai’s head on a platter and instead walks out completely humiliated. He went into the king’s chambers and is asked what he thinks should happen to someone in whom the king delights to honor. So of COURSE he thinks of himself, because you know, that’s the kind of man Haman is after all. Plus he did have that nice cozy dinner with the king and queen just yesterday.

So he comes up with this brilliant plan for “the man in whom the king delights to honor” to be given the kings very own robe to wear and his very own horse to ride and then be paraded through town with one of the king’s high officials leading him and heralding him as “the man in whom the king delights to honor”. All the time, Haman’s picturing himself in the royal robes on the royal horse being paraded around town. So it is particularly sweet when the king announces that it will all be for Mordecai, Haman’s arch nemesis. You can practically see Haman’s teeth clenching and his blood boiling in anger and hatred as he carries out the king’s orders to clothe and honor Mordecai.

Everyone in town knows how much Haman hates Mordecai, the ONE person in the entire town who refused to bow to him, is now the ONE person he is leading around on horseback and proclaiming at the top of his lungs, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!” The poetry of that moment can not be lost on any reader of this story.

Yet we can’t forget the reason for which Mordecai was being honored. He had saved the kings life months and months before this moment. And it was only because the king had had a sleepless night and had pulled out the royal records to hopefully help his slumber when the king discovered a royal mistake! This man Mordecai had saved his life and had never been honored for it! How dare the king miss such a critical thing, it must be remedied immediately. But how? Not only did he need to honor and thank Mordecai, but it also had to be EXTRA special because it had been a delayed reaction. He needed help coming up with the perfect way to honor such a patient and understanding man, but who could help him? Who could aid the king in coming up with such a special ceremony? Oh! Of course! His right hand man Haman could! And look he just happened to be the only person in the court waiting to see the king early that morning! What terrific “coincidence”!

You know, there are plenty of ways to say it, “what goes around comes around”, “You reap what you sow”, but in the end it’s all the same. It’s GOD. His timing is perfect, every time.

While Mordecai may have been a bit insulted about the delay in gratitude from the king, we don’t know it never says. He certainly didn’t mind the way in which he was being honored now. Not to mention when he later found out that Haman had gone in to see the king in order to ask for his head, well, I’m sure that irony wasn’t missed on anyone that day!

I don’t know what it is that you’ve been waiting for. But I know that God is good, and He loves you, and He wouldn’t be delaying if it wasn’t in your best interest to do so. I mean, look at how well timed Mordecai’s repayment was. Yes, whatever blessing it is that’s still hanging out there waiting to fall from heaven, be confident that that blessing will fall and it will come with such a force and beauty that it will blow you away.

God has a plan for you, a plan for your future hope, and it’s perfect. Trust Him. He knows what He’s doing, even when we don’t understand it.