From Dust to Diamonds

Shalom dear fellow daughters of the Lord! I hope this post finds all of you well and rejoicing as we get closer and closer to the Final Redemption and the coming of Yeshua, our Bridegroom! As darkness seems to be getting more in the world, it's a great time to remember the stories and truths of the Bible, and especially, Esther.

As we enter into the Feast of Purim tonight, it's a great time to remember and ponder on the story as we read through the Book of Esther. It carries an especially important message for us ladies, and we can learn so much from Esther in so many different ways.

First of all, let's take a look at the time when this story takes place. It takes place during the exile of the people of Israel. Life isn't easy for God's people as they live in a land filled with idols and wickedness, where God isn't feared. People can easily be led astray, or be forced to abandon their faith in order to survive. But still, it's tolerable - the people are surviving.

Esther was a beautiful Jewish girl, and her Hebrew name was Hadassah. In the beginning of the book, Esther is kind of just there. She's quiet and obedient to Mordecai, and in reality, for the first half of the story she isn't really an important character. But in the second half, things take a dramatic turn and suddenly Esther becomes the heroin that we remember to this day. And, if you look closely, you'll see that Esther is really the only character in the book that undergoes a change. Mordecai is always good, Haman is always bad, and the king is always somewhere in the middle.

What happened that changed her?

Well, let's take a look at the story!

Up until chapter 4, Esther is quiet, submissive, and just, well, there. When she hears the news, and Mordecai orders her to go to the king, she immediately reminds him of the decree that stated that she was not allowed to go unless she was summoned. She is basically telling Mordecai that she can't do it, there are laws in the land, and who is she to challenge these. He hadn't summoned her for 30 days!

The next few verses are very interesting. In our world today a person might have encouraged Esther as her uncle that she could do this. Isn't that what uncles, parents etc. do? Instead, Mordecai did just the opposite - he told her, ''Do not think in your own soul that you will escape in the king's household more than the Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place - but you and your father's household will perish. Who knows whether you have attained royal status for such a time as this?'' (Esther 4:13-14)

At first glance, it's as if Mordecai is telling her that she isn't really that necessary in the plan for redemption. But she has a choice. She can either believe that yes, of course she can't do this, it's not part of her character, it will cost her her life! Or, she can choose to put her trust in the Lord and walk out this divine appointment in faith and courage.

With these words, Mordecai reminded Esther of where her worth and strength really came from. It didn't come from her. On her own, she was exactly what her uncle told her, but he was also giving her the key to the solution. He was reminding her that true strength and courage didn't come from her, but from the Lord.

It was in that place of realizing that Esther understood that she had to connect to the Lord's strength, and to have faith that whatever the result would be, it would be for the good. All the heroes in the story of Israel and the Jews received their victories through faith and by drawing strength from Above, not from themselves. Esther didn't step out at the first call and tell herself ''I'm so wonderful, I've got this, leave it to me!'' And even when she answered the call and made the choice to do the right thing and trust God for the outcome, she still didn't trust in herself. She believed that God would give her exactly what she needed, when she needed it.

Her strength came from realizing that she was not the point of the story, and that she was not the 'solution' to the problem, but that she could connect to a higher purpose and bring the Lord's light into the world, and to the larger destiny that was unfolding right around them. By choosing God and trusting Him no matter what, she rose from being a silent, unimportant character to someone God used to save His people. Once her heart was fully His, and her life fully committed to Him, He could use her to bring redemption.

It's also interesting to note that God is not mentioned once in the whole book of Esther. It's as if God was silent, but it is still obvious that God was there all along! Even when Esther and Mordecai couldn't see God in the darkness of exile and the brink of extermination, they still believed that God was there, even though it seemed as if God had turned against them. Because of their faith in dark times, they have been remembered throughout all these years around the world since the story took place.

Today, it almost seems as if the same thing is happening. It can sometimes be hard to see God in the days in which we are living, as chaos and trials increase around us. But our job is not to get frightened or dismayed, because, as we can see in Esther's story, God was there all along. He organized everything perfectly up to the last minute.

Keep in mind that this story took place just after the 70 years of exile had ended. But, like a lot of us today, the Jewish people were reluctant to leave the land of their exile to go home, because they were comfortable and surviving, even though things sometimes got uncomfortable. Sometimes, God has to send some sort of wake up call to us, even today. A wake up call to repent and turn to Him, and work to hasten the Day of His Kingdom. Sometimes we get so comfortable in our own lives that we don't venture outside to do what God wants us to do.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why the world is such an upside down place right now. We all know that the Kingdom is right around the corner. But very few of us are ready. We're all arguing about who's right and who's wrong, splitting over everything, trying to build the Kingdom the way we think the Kingdom should be built, just like during the time of the Judges. We're hating our brothers and won't accept anyone if they don't see the Kingdom the same, or keep Torah the same. We're so busy fighting that we are forgetting all about the One Who wrote it in the first place, and the highest commandment that is in it. ''Love God, and love your neighbour.''

And now, when all these trials come upon us, we still don't turn back to the Lord and repent for all our hardheartedness! Instead, we start focusing on the problem and fighting it, but we're not focusing on the problem inside us first. First, we need to get our ducks in a row. We need to see if we are operating from a love-filled heart or from an ''I'm right and everyone else is wrong'' kind of heart. We can't bring God's light into the world if we don't walk in it.

We can't get rid of all the problems in the world if the problems are there to change us.

The Lord always sent things to His people to turn their hearts back to Him, and then He used them to get rid of the problem. He didn't use them to get rid of the problem and then bring their hearts back to Him. Of course, we can't just sit on our hands and let wickedness rule and walk right over us. But we must first submit to God and lay down our lives. Only when our heart if fully with God can we make a change and discern what it is He wants.

It's just like Esther. We need to see that we desperately need to walk in His strength, and not in our own. We need to lay down our lives, repent, and make teshuva, which literally means we turn right around and go the other way. God is so excited to bring the Kingdom, and the time is drawing near. He's trying to get us ready, prepare His bride.

Chag Purim Sameach!

Teaching by Tehila Gimpel on Esther was used to inform this post.