“In the first month, which is the month of Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur (that is, they cast lots) before Haman day after day; and they cast it month after month till the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar.” — Esther 3:7 (ESV)
Haman wanted to pick the best day to destroy the Jewish people, so he cast lots.
This was common practice in the ancient world. The Pur, from which the festival of Purim takes its name, was essentially a form of divination, a way of discerning the most auspicious timing for an action. Haman cast it in the first month of the year and let it fall. The lot landed on the twelfth month. Adar. Which means that from the moment the lot fell, there were eleven months between Haman’s plan and its execution.
Haman saw this as the perfect timing. He would announce the decree immediately, sign it into irrevocable law, and then have nearly a year for the empire to prepare for the systematic destruction of every Jewish person within its borders. What he did not see, what he could not see, was that the eleven months were not his to use. They belonged to God. They were eleven months for a reversal. Eleven months for a queen to find her courage. Eleven months for a sleepless king to be reminded of an unrewarded debt. Eleven months for the entire architecture of Haman’s plan to be turned inside out.
Proverbs 16:33 says: The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. Haman cast the lot. God decided where it landed. The eleven months Haman thought he had secured for destruction were the eleven months God had secured for salvation.
This is one of the most stunning details in a story full of stunning details. The very mechanism Haman used to time his attack became the gift that gave God’s people time to be rescued. The tool of the enemy served the purposes of the Lord. What the adversary meant as timing for catastrophe, God used as a runway for deliverance.
Today, look at something in your life that feels like it is on Haman’s timeline, moving toward a bad outcome with the calendar pages turning. Consider: perhaps the same months that look like delay to you are actually God’s preparation runway. The lot that landed on the twelfth month was not Haman’s victory. It was God’s gift.
Prayer
Father, what looks like your enemy’s timing is actually yours. I release the calendar to you. The months that I have feared, the approaching deadlines, the ticking clocks, I trust that you have already decided where the lot lands. Nothing is on Haman’s schedule. Everything is on yours. In Jesus’ name, amen.
