Raised for Such a Time as This

Raised for Such a Time as This

You have probably heard lessons and sermons about Mordecai’s words to Esther, challenging her to rise to the occasion and present a case to save her people before the King. T-shirts and coffee mugs proudly point us toward reaching goals in our lives “at such a time as this.” Our series of lessons begins here, but don’t lose sight of the context of Mordecai’s words.

Esther was being warned – scolded and rebuked, perhaps – to not be self-centered, self-indulgent and even self-preserving. Esther was being reminded that she was part of a bigger picture and that she had been chosen to set aside her own ambitions, even her own life for a cause much bigger than herself. It would have been easier and safer for Esther to not do anything, to let nature take care of itself.

I want to tie two bigger pictures to the passage from Esther for our setting and our time today. Most doctrines in the Bible are previewed, taught and reinforced throughout centuries of biblical history and teaching. While the resurrection happened with Jesus three days after Calvary, it was previewed at various times through the Old Testament and the life of Jesus. It is also reinforced through the raised lives of the Apostles and disciples through the ages.

In the Old Testament, when God brought the answer to circumstances through individuals, He often used the word “raised” to describe His process of selection and empowering. “Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them” (Judges 2:16 ESV). Ultimately speaking of Jesus, Moses told the people, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him” (Deuteronomy 18:15 NIV). The Bible often hints that God will raise up a generation who will obey Him. Do you sense that God is raising you up?

God has chosen our generation to usher in changes in the church, bridging a religious experience that virtually had not changed in centuries to an experience that can be understood by people who do not have a Judeo-Christian ethic and do not have the background of experiencing church. Rather than allowing them to go into a culture that spoke a language, sang songs and practiced traditions from hundreds of years ago, He has chosen a generation of believers who would accept and promote change.

The change hasn’t been easy, has it? The paradigm shift that this generation has experienced has shaken the very core of who we have been as a people of God. We have had to climb out of cultural trenches that had been hewn for hundreds of years. But who would have guessed that a pandemic would alter everything about how the church gathers together? God saw this and raised up this generation to accomplish a formidable task.

You have come to this point in history, at this place, setting and location, for such a time as this. While theoretically the church faces extinction every generation, the challenges of COVID have altered the course of the future of the church in less than a year’s time. The direction of the church have changed in our lifetime, on our watch, and in our backyard. Paul reminds us, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Ephesians 1:4).

Will you raise your participation in shaping the future of the church – for your children and their children and their children – for such a time as this?