FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS

There is a lot of chatter on the Internet about the story of a pastor from a small Ohio town meeting John McCain and Sarah Palin and telling Sarah that he had a message from God, “You are a type of Esther.” Google “Sarah Palin Ohio Esther” and you will get about 22,000 bits of chatter to read in your spare time.

“Is Sarah Palin a type of Esther?” Before there can be any kind of answer, let’s look at two things:

1. Does God speak to His people today?

When the news media lampoons a story like the one that has caused all this particular Internet chatter, they are not questioning the spiritual ramifications of being an Esther. No, they are calling into question the fundamental question, “Does God speak to people?” When elements of the church question a “word from the Lord,” they are often driven by the same spirit of unbelief.

God is not silent; He is still speaking to His people. For one thing, the Bible is like a digitally recorded conversation from heaven. “For the Word of God is alive and powerful” (Hebrews 4:12). Let them that have ears to hear, hear!

2. Esther came out of nowhere to be a deliverer of her people.

The story of Esther and its comparison to today is fascinating. Esther came out of obscurity; she was beautiful and smart and she rose to the second highest position in Persia (are you picking up any parallels here?). Soon after her ascension to power, a holocaust-type plot was revealed that would have seen hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Jews murdered in a region stretching from India to the Mediterranean. Esther’s uncle brought her the details of the plot and told her that she needed to take the information to the king. Esther tried to defer to someone else, to let someone else take the risks.

Esther’s uncle got right in her face and told her (this is my paraphrase): “Do you think that somehow you are going to escape the terrible consequences of the evil? You and your family will suffer under this, too. You must do what you know is right, that which you have the ability to do. Do you honestly think God bestowed all this favor on you and that, therefore, it has somehow insulated you? God put you in this place for now! You have come to the kingdom for such a time as this” (4:12-14).

Several of the chapters in the book of Esther (5-7) tell the story of how God used Esther to bring the conspiracy of evil to the attention of the king and then how the perpetrator of evil was dealt with.

So now back to the original question: “Is Sarah Palin a type of modern-day Esther?” My answer is, I think so. I say that with emphasis!

I believe that Sarah Palin has a destiny that is yet to be fully revealed. Before the biblical Esther could be a deliverer for her people, she had to come to the palace and be established in a place of authority. This preparation period takes time and when it is complete, then suddenly God will reveal His plan, as He did with Esther.

How will God use Sarah Palin? I don’t know and neither does anybody else, yet. No matter which direction the voting goes in the next few weeks, we have watched Sarah come out of nowhere and begin to be established as a major player in the American political scene. I see in her an ability to communicate with middle America that very few politicians have; the latest and greatest was Ronald Reagan. (Here’s a little info for you. When Margret Thatcher began her ascendency toward becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain, the elitist liberals in English politics and most of the English media were very dismissive of her. They thought of her as a commoner—and just a woman—and therefore unworthy for high office! The Iron Lady, as she became known, went on to be one of the greatest of England’s modern leaders.)

There is one more part of the answer to the question, “Is Sarah Palin a type of a modern-day Esther?” I have briefly tried to answer the first part, and the second part of the answer is, “Yes, and so are you!”

Every believer is a type of Esther. Every man, every woman who is honest in his or her pursuit of God, is an Esther. Let’s get over the childishness of thinking of the Esther spirit as being somehow feminine. This is not a gender issue, this is an “anointing of the Holy Ghost” issue. Frankly, there are a lot of men who need to stand up and become half the woman of God that Esther was. If they did so, they would be a lot more of a man than they are now! All those who are hearing the voice of the Lord need to embrace the understanding that God has brought us to His Kingdom for such a time as this!