When I was younger I used to feel like I was born in the wrong time. I would watch movies about knights and feel a longing for that time. I would look at the modern world around me, and sigh, feeling as if I simply would fit better in that time than this one.
Ever feel like that? I think that is where nostalgia comes from. We see another time or even another place, and feel as if we belong there rather than here and now.
Esther was a beautiful young Jewish woman who was raised by her cousin, Mordecai, after her parents died.
Circumstances led to her going from being unknown to being queen. The story sounds a bit similar to Joseph's, with the exception that Esther does not appear to have any foreknowledge or dreams. However, she does appear to be in the "right place at the right time" to rise to this position and be able to obtain the favor of a king.
To make a long story short, all was going well, until a man named Haman had a plot to destroy all the Jewish people in the kingdom.
Esther was in a position to help, although it might cost her life to speak to the king without being summoned.
But Mordecai said something very interesting to her, "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. 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?" Esther 4:13-14 (NIV)
It is the same for us. God's Kingdom will come, and the Gospel will be preached to all the nations whether we speak to our neighbor or not.
However, perhaps just like Esther, we are alive now, and live where we do, for such a time as this?
