We love when God reveals Himself in extraordinary ways, when He shows up in the miraculous. But often He chooses to care for His own in the ordinary of life.
Two Jewish celebrations are beautiful reminders that God is the King of both the extraordinary and the ordinary. Passover is the Jewish time of remembrance for God’s amazing deliverance of His people from Egyptian slavery. God struck down the Egyptians through awe-inspiring plagues revealing that He alone is God. He parted the Red Sea and ensured His people’s liberation.
Purim is the Jewish holiday remembering God’s provision for His people through ordinary events chronicled in the Book of Esther. The Book of Exodus chronicles the foundation for Passover, and Esther the foundation for Purim. In the Book of Esther, God guides the heart of a human king to place Esther in the role of queen who will one day stand up for her people. God’s name is not mentioned. And intentionally so.
For example, when Mordecai mourns and Esther fasts, the Lord’s name is intentionally omitted from the narrative. The author was using a literary device to teach God’s people that often God silently works in the ordinary details of life. Often His work isn’t pronounced with plagues and parting of seas. But He is always caring for His people. When He appears to be silent, He is not absent. We must not mistake His silence for absence.
The Book of Esther only makes full sense when we understand God as the ultimate hero, the King who is behind the king. If you read the story without God as the hero, it’s hard to make everything line up. Esther and Mordecai are deeply flawed, as we are. If you try to make Esther the hero, you’ll struggle with some of her moral choices early in the story.
While the Lord used her to intercede for His people, she didn’t differentiate herself like Daniel or refuse to fully integrate into the culture like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. If you try to make Mordecai the hero, you’ll struggle too as he told Esther to deny who she was. Instead, the hero is the sovereign King who silently works in the ordinary.
When God seems silent, He is not absent. And even when things don’t make sense, He is still in charge. He is still the One who is working behind the scenes in ways we will never even know this side of eternity. He is the God of the ordinary. He is the King who uses ordinary circumstances for His people … and for you.
Jesus perfectly blended the ordinary and the extraordinary. He is the extraordinary God placed in an ordinary body so that He could suffer and die for us. When things don’t make sense, He is still in charge. Sometimes His sovereignty is revealed in the extraordinary, sometimes in the ordinary. But always He is Lord.
