PROVIDENCE

Jim Gray

Exodus 2: 5-11 (to … burdens); Esther 4: 9-17

I have a thought about providence in the life of a believer, God’s providence and how the believer responds to that. God’s providence is God’s ordering in your life, things that He orders about which He does not consult you. He does it for your good, does it for your blessing. What struck me in these two scriptures was that Moses was brought up in the house of a king and he had to leave it; and Esther was brought into the house of a king and she was required to stay there and intercede there – almost, on the face of it, two opposite actions to similar circumstances.

For the young people here, this boy Moses was born at a time of difficulty and trial for the children of Israel while they were living in Goshen in Egypt. The Egyptians had oppressed them and made them build their cities and treated them as slaves, and Pharaoh wanted to destroy all the boys that were born to the Jews and put them into the river Nile. However, Moses’ mother and father put him in an ark of pitch, a little box pitched so that it would float on the river. But they put it in the sedge of the river, and they left it there and his sister looked to see what would happen to him. Pharaoh’s daughter came along and she saw this box and she saw there was a baby boy in it, and she took compassion on him because he was crying. Moses’ sister was nearby and she came and enquired if she could find someone to nurse the child for her and she brought the mother of the child who nursed him for some years – the scripture does not say how many – and then he was brought into the house of Pharaoh and brought up as Pharaoh’s daughter’s son.

I was struck by the thought of divine providence while reading an article in which the writer said Moses knew that the children of Israel, his relatives, were being oppressed by Pharaoh as slaves; and Moses could have gone into Pharaoh and pleaded their cause. God had placed him in the house of Pharaoh; that was divine providence; Moses had no hand in it. He was a man of influence in the house of Pharaoh, the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He could have gone into Pharaoh and pleaded the cause of the children of Israel and sought to alleviate their sufferings. If that had happened, the children of Israel would never have left Egypt. They would have been subject to the king of Egypt for ever. They would never have been in the land that God had in mind for them, the land of beauty, the land of Palestine. It says a chapter or so later, “a good and spacious land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey”, (ch. 3: 8), but they would never have come in there. They would have had a comfortable life in Egypt.

But Moses had some instruction from his parents before he was put into the house of Pharaoh’s daughter. He must have had some understanding that he was related to these persons who were oppressed. No doubt divine ordering had put him in Pharaoh’s house and he had been given the education of an Egyptian, taught perhaps to rule Egypt. However, it came into his heart to look upon his brethren and he was prepared “to suffer affliction along with the people of God … for he had respect to the recompense”, Heb. 11: 25,26. He had respect to the testimony, that was that they should be taken out of Egypt and brought into the land of Canaan. It might mean suffering and affliction as it did for Moses but he was prepared to put aside what providence seemed to put in his way, to stand for the testimony of the Lord Jesus. Now, that can enter into our lives.

You might find yourself in circumstances in life providentially – God’s ordering it might be puts you there – then the time comes when a choice has to be made. How are you going to use your influence to help the testimony? Here Moses chose to depart from the court of Pharaoh. He slew an Egyptian because he was oppressing one of his brethren, then he fled from the face of Pharaoh and he had to learn to be a shepherd before he learned to lead God’s people. I just want to make the point that in the providential ways of God he was in the house of Pharaoh. He could have used his influence to ameliorate and better the conditions of God’s people but instead of that he had in type respect to the testimony of the Lord Jesus. He gave up his privileges as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter to become a shepherd for forty years. He stayed away until the king of Egypt died. He lived a long time this king of Egypt; you read it in the history books. And then Moses cam back, tutored of God. His time away was of God, to learn how to lead the people out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. That is the lesson in Moses.

In Esther it is a little different. Esther was a young Jewish woman born and brought up in the captivity. The Jews had been taken out of their own land and taken away in the captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, probably about one hundred years or more before this. At this time there was an evil man Haman who influenced king Ahasuerus and caused him to sign a writing to say that all the Jews in his lands had to be killed. It was a genocide. All the Jews in the countries that he ruled over had to be killed, and he ruled over many countries. I think the scripture says a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. It took the horses a long time to go with the message to destroy all the Jews. About twelve months were given before they were to be destroyed because of the journeys that had to be made.

Mordecai was a Jew and he was concerned about the destruction of God’s people. Esther had become queen of the country having been married to the king, and as she was a Jewess Mordecai appeals to her to use her influence with the king. God’s ordering had placed her in the position. She was a captive in the land and she had been taken to the king to see whether he would choose her as his bride; and he chose her as his bride from amongst other women. So divine providence had placed her in that position. She was in a position of privilege and Mordecai asked her to go into the king and plead the cause of God’s people. She says, I have not been called for thirty days. If I go in without being called and the king does not extend the golden sceptre to me, I will die. He will put me to death: “there is one law”. That is verse 11; it is in italics. It was a certainty: if she stood in the inner court and he did not extend the golden sceptre, she would be put to death. What was she going to do? She put the testimony of the Lord Jesus first. That is what she did. In this instance it was not a case of fleeing as Moses had to flee. Esther had to stay and go and present herself to the king and he did extend the gold sceptre to her and listened to her. He received her, but she was prepared to die for the testimony. Mordecai says, “And who knows whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (v.14). He is really saying to her God has ordered this. You are in a position of influence. Use that influence for the testimony of the our Lord!

Now there are times in your life when you may have such an experience. Through God’s ordering you may be in a position where you can influence authority, authority in a general sense, for the good of the testimony, speak for the Lord Jesus, speak on behalf of the Lord Jesus, bring His Name into the matter. It says, “The name of Jehovah is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe”, Prov. 18: 10. Bring in that Name and God will come into the matter and provide a way through. That happens in the life of believers. God orders things and the power of evil is overthrown: “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”, 1 John 4: 4

Esther went and fasted and her maidens fasted; Mordecai fasted. We would say she brings the brethren into the matter in hand. There is a fasting before Jehovah that He will come in. She used her privileged position although fraught with danger, but God came into the matter and the testimony was saved.

There was another order by the king to say that the Jews had to stand for their lives and defend themselves and take the spoil of those who sought to destroy them and Haman who had ordered the first execution of the Jews found himself hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. That is how God overthrew the power of evil.

I only present this in a simple way, to show us that in life here there are opportunities where you may have to give up privileges for the testimony and others where you can use privileges for intercession with an authority for the good of the testimony and God comes into the matter. May the Lord help us in these things and encourage us for His Name’s sake.

EDINBURGH

8 July 2003