Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.
While studying the book of Esther at Bible Study, I noticed that the Jews had chosen to stay in exile in the land of Persia. They could have returned to their homes in Jerusalem but decided to remain with their comfort and familiarity and had assimilated so well that their nationality had become imperceptible to their neighbors.
Enter, the heroine, Queen Esther — a Jew but a carefully guarded secret from her husband and adopted nation. She was so isolated and insulated from the outside world that a potential holocaust of her people couldn’t penetrate her seclusion without the hand of God entering into the story.
The recent shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon reminded me of this story. Standing in a classroom with a gun, the shooter asked victims if they were Christians before he shot them. Each person had the choice to affirm their faith in Christ or not. Some lost their lives for their convictions.
ISIS beheaded twenty-one Egyptian men because of their belief in Christ. The Yazidis, a Christian minority in Iraq, have fled for their lives even as women and children have been captured, raped, and killed by ISIS.
In America, it’s easy to live each day as if all is well. How long before the isolation and insulation we expect and crave will keep us from an awareness of the holocaust that is going on around the world and within our own borders?
Back to Esther, who had a choice:
If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this? Esther 4:14 (NLT)
Will you keep quiet? Are you ready to stand up for your faith and are you placed in a position for such a time as this?
Something to think about.