Jesse Tree Devotional for December 18th

December 18

The Time is Here

Today’s Reading: Esther 4:10-17
Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai; All the king’s servants, and the people of the king’s provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days. And they told to Mordecai Esther’s words. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king’s house, more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father’s house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer, Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

An orphaned Jewish girl handpicked from among thousands of well-manicured beauties to be the King’s new bride—it seems the stuff of Hollywood and movie screens. But God’s drama has sweeping ramifications: the deliverance of the entire Jewish race. As Mordecai declares to Esther: “You have come to this…position for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)

Just like You, Jesus. You came to this position—a swaddled, red-faced baby in a cold, dark barn---for such a time as this. Your coming is the dividing, definitive point in all of God’s drama: Your birth divides history into the time before You and the time after You. Since the very first tick of Earth’s time, all of time has been waiting, groaning, yearning, for You. And here it is: You have come for such a time as this—and You’ve come for all time.

As Esther came to deliver a people, You come to deliver all people. Esther said it, but didn’t need to do it: “And if I perish, I perish.” You came…and You did just that.

Lord, You come for me and my time and You perished—for us all.

Could there be a greater gift?