Not as they seem...

You have probably heard the story or read it on the internet about a man who found himself shipwrecked on an uninhabited island.  He had painstakingly constructed a hut with a few things he salvaged from the wreck and from whatever he could find on the island.  That little hut was the only protection he had from the elements and the only place he cold safeguard his meager possessions. 

Upon returning from a lengthy search for food, he was terrified to find the hut engulfed in flames.  He spent that night despondent, sleeping on the sand and feeling like God had abandoned him.

He awoke early the next morning and, to his surprise, saw a ship anchored off the island.  A crew member stepped ashore and told him, “We saw your smoke signal and came to rescue you.”  What seemed to be destruction turned out to be deliverance. 

As we looked at the sixth chapter of Esther last week, we discovered that  this was the case for Mordecai.  Every hope that sheltered him seemed to have gone up in smoke.  There are four important principles in this chapter that we can apply to our own lives. 

1.) When All Seems Lost, It Isn’t. For the Jews living in Persia in Mordecai’s time, it seemed as if all was lost. It would have been easy for Mordecai to bemoan the fact that no one noticed how he had once saved the king but was now being treated unjustly. 

2.) When No One Seems To Notice, God Does. While the king tossed and turned, Mordecai slept.  So in spite of the fact that no one seemed to notice, God did.  Though we may feel abandoned, we are never out of God’s watchful eye or far from His protective care. 

3.) When Everything Seems Great For Our Enemies, It’s Not. As soon as the king heard that nothing had been done to reward Mordecai, he immediately set out to rectify the situation.  He sought advice from the person whose agenda for Mordecai was diametrically opposed to his. 

4.) When Nothing Seems Just, It Is. It has been said that the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small.  Haman found himself to be but tiny grist in those mills. 

We need to remember that even when God seems absent, He is here.  He is watching, waiting, and working.  Things are not always as they seem.