Contrary to those who interpret Esther 4:13-14 to mean that God will excuse someone from service when He has chosen that person, we note that the designated servant inevitably goes and does the bidding of God. However, it is not usually without protesting and offering excuses, none of which God accepts.

Esther was scared about appearing in the king’s court when she knew the designs of the wicked Haman against her people. Mordecai gently encouraged her, telling her truthfully that God could raise up someone else. But He did not, for Esther went.

Does God force people against their wills? Does He make robots of them? None of these people would answer “yes” to those questions, for all would say that when they went, they went willingly. Perhaps the principle is to be found in Psalm 110:3: “ Your troops will be willing on your day of battle…” What causes God’s troops to be willing?

Paul wrote that “God …works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:13). God told Moses that He would make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the Israelites (Ex. 3:21). Solomon wrote that “the king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases” (Prov. 21:1). Jeremiah wrote, “They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul” (Jer. 32:38-41).

God places the desire within the human heart to do His will. That desire overcomes our natural reluctance to go and serve God. We shall notice other scriptural examples next week.