THE INVISIBLE HAND OF GRACE

By Dr. M. R. Dowler

There was a foreign news item that appeared several years ago that hardly caused a blip in the international press. In January 2011 the Iranian government removed all road and informational signs to the ancient tombs of Esther and Mordecai, officially downgrading them as an official Christian pilgrimage site. This action was in response to radical Muslim protesters threatening to destroy the tombs. Esther and Mordecai were Jews serving in the fifth century BC Persian royal court (Esther 10:32; 11:3) and buried in the Iranian city of Hamadan.

Grace is a common word in the Christian faith; we read about and sing songs about grace. But as common as the concept of grace is (Ephesians 2:5, 8), there are as many misconceptions. One such misunderstanding is that grace is an exclusively New Testament doctrine. Granted, the theology of grace is epitomized in the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 13:14) and outlined in the acronym GRACE – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. But grace does appear in the Old Testament (Genesis 6:8).

The Hebrew words for grace are hanan and hen. Hanan is a verb defined as actively giving and receiving favor (Genesis 39:21; Exodus 33:12); hen is a noun used 67 times and defined as a movement toward a positive end (Jeremiah 29:11). In the Jewish mindset hanan has to do with what we do for others; hen has everything to do with the providence of God to us, as in the unfolding of God’s Will for us.

We can see how this movement of grace works in the story of Esther; here the noun hen is used three times (Esther 2:15, 17; 5:2). It was God’s invisible hand that prompted Esther to find grace (hen) in the eyes of King Ahasuerus, so that God could ultimately deliver His people from destruction through Queen Esther. Simply stated, God uses grace to put the right person in the right place at the right time. The person or situation that led to grace coming into your life was His hen, His movement toward a positive end. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound! Think about it.