“He has made everything beautiful in its time. …” (Eccles 3:11).

“God’s time is the best” is an expression many of us are not only familiar with, but often repeat almost to the point of being hackneyed. Yet we often fail to live up to our claim, when circumstances provide us the opportunity  to demonstrate the veracity of our claim.  Does this not prove that what we profess does not always reflect what we actually believe. Thankfully, ““God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Num 23:19). If we truly believe that God’s time is the best and that He cannot lie, we will WAIT FOR HIM, knowing that delay is not denial.
   
That God has made everything beautiful in its time, indicates that God has a time for whatever He wants to happen. God says, “… I know the plans I have for you,” …plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer 29:11 NIV). Yes, God has great plans for us, but He has equally arranged things to happen according to His timing. God’s plans for you will follow a process in His programme for your life, designed to ensure that the prosperous future He has for you comes in phases, as and when due. Mordecai’s experience proves this truth.
   
Mordecai was Esther’s older cousin, who had brought her up following the death of her parents. Esther, by divine design, replaced queen Vashti as King Ahasuerus’s wife (Esth 2:17). She kept her nationality a secret all the while, because Mordecai had instructed her to do so (Esth 2:20). It was while Esther was queen that Mordecai uncovered a plot against the king: “In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name. And when an inquiry was made into the matter, it was confirmed, and both were hanged on a gallows; and it was written in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king.” (Esth 2:21-23). Note that though Mordecai’s noble deed had been recorded, it seemed to have been forgotten and unappreciated.
   
How come the king, whose life and kingdom Mordecai had saved, did not deem it necessary to reward or even commend him officially or publicly? Other people would have nursed a grudge against king Ahasuerus for his ungrateful attitude towards them, but not Mordecai. Rather, he continued to discharge his duties at the king’s gate faithfully. What Mordecai may not have known was that God had an auspicious time, when He would call Mordecai’s noble action to remembrance. This is why the Bible says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;” (Prov 3:5). Had Mordecai been leaning on his own understanding, he would have reacted negatively to the situation, and missed a special opportunity to witness the wisdom of divine timing.
   
On his own, Mordecai could not have foreknown that Haman, one of the king’s noblemen, would prove to be an enemy of the Jewish people. Haman’s hatred for Mordecai, in particular, and the Jews, in general, was because Mordecai had refused, repeatedly, to bow down to him. According to the Bible, “… he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus—the people of Mordecai.” (Esth 3:6). Haman conceived a plan to have the Jews annihilated (Esth 3:8-15). His plan was a cinch, humanly speaking— only a divine intervention could have reverse it. Thankfully, Mordecai had God on his side. Whenever we truly wait for God, we have Him on our side. And if God be for us, who can be against us. God will never encourage you to put your trust in man, not even in your own self, “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1Cor 1:25).
   
It is a terrible thing to be branded an enemy of the Jews—an unfortunate situation Haman, the Agagite, brought upon himself (Esth 3:10). At just the point when Haman felt his fortune could not have been better, his plans backfired on him. He entered king Ahasuerus’s royal courts on the morning following an eventful night during which his royal majesty had been unable to sleep, and had consequently ordered that the book of the records of the chronicles be read to him (Esth 6:1). As a result, Mordecai’s long-forgotten act of loyalty to the king resurfaced, and attracted the king’s favourable disposition to honour him officially and publicly. When king Ahasuerus asked Haman what should be done for a man the king wanted to honour, he misapplied the king’s intentions to himself, and gave a glowing recommendation. In response, “… the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have spoken.”” (Esth 6:10). Haman might have thought his hearing had suddenly become defective. Alas! He had heard the king right, and that was the beginning of Haman’s downfall, which led to his death on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Truly, delay is not denial. Therefore, never quit doing the right thing because no one seems to notice or pay attention to what you are doing. Remember, God who called Mordecai’s good deed to remembrance, can prompt people to go back to the archives (with keen interest) in search of something you did that no one seemed to have commended or even acknowledged. God’s time is the best. Shalom.